Heirloom Tomato

Here are a few pics from last years bounty. Last year we grew almost everything from seed. The Heirlooms were all amazing. The paste were very meaty and just downright good. The pinks were good too. One of the best was the Dixie Golden Giant. Absolutely amazing. As we plan for this year one new one we are going to try is the Cherokee Purple. It's an Heirloom that grows well in the Midwest.

One note of caution with heirlooms in this area. We had three last year that, well, just did not produce.

Aussie, Blue Ridge Mountain and sadly, the Church did not grow well. The Aussie and Blue Ridge Mtn both produced less than 3.

The church did more like 7, but for our production desires, we were disappointed. The hope and anticipation of our slowly growing seeds means that we are checking the seed boxes every day, sometimes, every few hours. Six weeks from now we will have large plants to begin to give away. Again, this year we are going with the cattle panels, doubled up against each other in 8 ft runs. We should end up with 32 ft (doubled) of tomatoes.

Exciting!

The Black Zebra Heirloom Tomato

(Black Zebra)

So far this has been the most interesting heirloom tomato in our 2009 garden. Here is what someone wrote about the Black Zebra-

"This stunning, perfectly round 1½" to 2" fruits with tender, deep dark red to caramel colored skin beneath vertical dark green and mahogany streaks . . .Black Zebra has opulent, rich flavor with hints of smoke and sweetness"

It is an absolutely stunning and delicious tomato. We had no idea that a tomato could have so many flavors all wrapped up in one small package.

I (Jeremy) have been anxiously awaiting this one to ripen and after months of waiting, we finally tried it.

This is the best tasting tomato (or maybe a close second to the whopper) I have had this year. I encourage you to find one of these and try it with anything and everything. It is perfect on BLT's!!!!

Our List Thus Far of Top Five Favorites-

1. Black Zebra (heirloom)

2. Whopper

3. Dixie Golden Giant (heirloom)

4. Argentina (heirloom)

5. Bull's Heart (heirloom)

We have 41 tomato plants (6 whopper plants-year, we like whoppers)

And our total harvested tomatoes-

134

And it's not even August.

Heirloom Tomatoes- Still Growing and Keeping the Bunnies OUT!

June 4, 2009
Our tomato plants continue to grow well. We did plant them a little early this year, so we have almost 10 little green tomatoes already. We also are using the Topsy Turvy to see if it really works. We have two patches of cucumbers, two patches of potatoes (red and white), two patches of beans, lots of okra. And of course 42 tomato plants. Not sure if they will all make it, but hopefully we will enjoy some tomatoes by 4th of July! There are three bunnies that have decided our yard is interesting. They appear in the mornings and evenings. Rheau has done her best to keep them out. One of the little ones is making it's way over to the herb garden. Rheau can't protect that. So it looks like it's time to pant a few extra marigold flowers. We've heard they keep away the bunnies. We will see. We will keep you all posted.

These pics were taken with our brand new Canon Powershot. Our last camera died. This one works great and we found it at Office Max on sale.

Heirlooms- Giveaways- Bunnies

As of yesterday we have given away 105 tomato plants, mostly heirlooms. The plants grew well on our shelves with the grow lights purchased from Westlake. Almost every tomato plant has done great, except the Aussie and the Blue Ridge Mountain. The Aussie seems to be a late grower and we have two plants doing much better. So we will hopefully see a few Aussie tomatoes this year. As for the Blue Ridge Mountain, we have one plant in the ground and it's not going to make it. We do have one under our grow lights that might be able to replace the one already in the garden. We hope. Right now we have 40 tomatoes growing quite well. 30 different varieties. Last year we harvested 369 tomatoes.

We are trying to reach 500 this year, which we might easily do if the weather cooperates. We have already had to spray for blight once. Now all we have to do is feed, water and keep the plants safe from bunnies. Several of you have told me that bunnies have already destroyed a few of your tomato plants. Sorry to hear that. We are more than happy to share the harvest. So throughout July, August and September there will several tomatoes at the church during the week and on Sundays. Hope to also take some to Restart if they harvest falls correctly.

We have seen one baby bunny running around the yard but that poor thing has no chance against the mighty Rheau (roo).

She stand guard over her backyard like no one else. Bunnies have a very small chance of taking out the garden, as do squirrels or another other rodent. She chases them and when she catches them, it's playtime!

Here are the tomatoes we can't wait to harvest- Whopper (6 plants in), Valencia, Church, Grandfather Ashlock, Yellow Pear, Aussie and the Black Zebra. Very unique sounding eh?

Alright, good gardening to all.

Seeds That Have Been Planted So Far

Alright, here is the list of seeds that we planted. Mostly tomato seeds and they are all heirlooms. We have others ordered from Park Seeds and Henry Fields, but are still waiting.

Heirlooms from TomatoFest that received a place to grow.
Argentina
Aussie
Black Zebra
Blue Ridge Mountain
Bull's Heart
Church
Cuostralee
Church (personal favorite)
Grandfather Ashlock
Carol Chyko's Big Paste
Dixie Golden Giant
Giant 11
Giant Belgium
Giant Oxheart
Green Giant
Ultimate Giant

Don't all of those sound just amazingly strange and beautiful? Well, the seeds are planted and now we are closely watching for that first sprig of green to pop through the soil.
Hope you have a wonderful day and of course we planted way too many of these so there might be a few plants to give away.

Seeds and the Garden

We planted seeds on Friday. We are starting Tomatoes from seed. It should be a very interesting year in our garden. Right now we have 24 different varieties of heirlooms planted. Many of those plants will be given away because we are also planting regular tomato plants. Here we are planting the seeds and prepping the garden to be planted in early May.